While 69% of U.S. small-business owners believe mobile marketing is critical to their company’s growth, the majority of them admit they’re failing to effectively leverage the technology, a survey released by Web.com Group shows. According to survey data, about 60% of small businesses have a website, but only 26% have a mobile-friendly (adjusted for smartphone screens) site, and only 14% have a stand-alone mobile site.

“With more and more consumers specifically searching for local businesses on their mobile devices, it is imperative that small businesses invest in a mobile presence,” said David Brown, chairman and chief executive officer of Web.com. “Having a mobile presence can be a huge competitive advantage for small businesses trying to attract local customers by instantly introducing a potential customer to their business’ products and services in a mobile-enhanced way.”

Last year, firm comScore reported that out of 234 million U.S. mobile consumers, 82.2 million use a smartphone, providing an obvious incentive for businesses to appeal to on-the-go consumers. With that in mind, 64% of small-business owners surveyed by Web.com said they planned to increase spending on mobile investments in 2012. How exactly small businesses will upgrade is not clear, though, as 61% currently don’t have a mobile search strategy. The biggest hurdle to more mobile investments is time, as data revealed 64% of small-business owners don’t have a dedicated marketing team.

Superior Promos Promotional Products is now a part of the online “pinning” world. Pinterest is an interactive community which allows users to share inspirations and products found from around the web. This new social platform has been quite the thrill for us here at Superior Promos. Usually you have to go to Trade Show to find this much interest!

The FDA’s ban on tobacco companies’ use of promotional products has now gone into effect. We talked about this ban at length as it was passed nearly a year ago. Tobacco companies are no longer allowed to use their logos on promotional items. This ban is meant to protect America’s youth from marketing campaigns that encourage smoking.

While we support this ban to fullest extent, we have covered this story at length to show the power of promotional products. When used to promote a business or a worthwhile cause, promotional products have proven themselves as a marketing effort that can’t be duplicated by any other medium.

If any of you watched the Christmas day NBA basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers, you might have noticed angry Laker fans throwing foam hand promotional items on the court in response to the poor officiating and poor play of their home team. We’ve often talked about the many uses of promotional products, but I think we will keep this one off the list : ) .

We’ve chronicled the recent law passed by President Obama to ban the use of tobacco company logos on promotional products. Well, we also touched on the tobacco companies’ lawsuit to remove this particular element of the aforementioned ban. Just recently, a Federal judge dealt the Tobacco companies another blow by saying their lawsuit was unwarranted.